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Rigoberto Gonzalez
USA | ethnicity = Chicano | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks Antonio's Card Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = Gary Soto, Francisco X. Alarcón, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Pat Mora, Alberto Ríos, Ai, Clarence Major, Jewell Parker Rhodes | influenced = | awards = Guggenheim Fellowship NEA Fellowship American Book Award The Poetry Center Book Award, The Shelley Memorial Award (Poetry Society of America), NYFA Fellowship | signature = | website = }} Rigoberto González (born July 18, 1970) is a Chicano American poet. book critic, and author of fiction, nonfiction, and bilingual children's books, Life Born in Bakersfield, California and raised in Michoacán, Mexico, González is the son and grandson of migrant farm workers (both his parents are deceased). His extended family migrated back to California in 1980 and returned to Mexico in 1992. González remained alone in the U.S. to complete his education. Details of his troubled childhood in Michoacán and his difficult adolescence as an immigrant in California are the basis for his coming of age memoir, Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa. During his college years he performed with various Baile Folklorico and Flamenco dance troupes. He earned a B.A. in Humanities and Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of California, Riverside,http://www.alumni.ucr.edu/notable_alumni.html and graduate degrees from the University of California, Davis, and Arizona State University in Tempe. His former teachers include the Chicano poets Gary Soto, Francisco X. Alarcón, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Pat Mora and Alberto Ríos, and African American writers Clarence Major and Jewell Parker Rhodes. Professional Background In 1997 González enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, but dropped out a year later to join his partner in New York City and to pursue a writing career. The 2 published their 1st books only a few months apart in the spring of 1999 and received numerous awards and recognitions for their works. In 2001, González pursued a career as an academic, holding distinguished teaching appointments at The New School, the University of Toledo, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Queens College/City University of New York. González has lived and worked mostly in New York City and currently teaches at the writing program of Rutgers University in Newark,http://mfa.newark.rutgers.edu/faculty/gonzalezrigobertofacultypage.htm where he is Associate Professor of English. He also holds a part-time appointment with the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.http://www.vermontcollege.edu/node/218 He has held various international artist residencies including stays in Spain, Brazil, Costa Rica, Scotland and Switzerland, He wrote a monthly Chicano/Latino book review column, from 2002 to 2012, for the El Paso Times. On July 22, 2012, González reached a milestone when he published his 200th review with the Texas newspaper. http://labloga.blogspot.com/2012/07/celebrating-200th-el-paso-times-book.html He is also contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine, an executive board member of the National Book Critics Circle, a contributing writer for Lambda Literary and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and a founding member of the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of Chicano/Latino activist-writers. In 2008 he was named to the position of 2009 Poet-in-Residence by the Board of Trustees of The Frost Place, the farm house of Robert Frost located in New Hampshire. He was also named one of 100 Men and Women Who Made 2008 a Year to Remember by Out magazine. In 2009, My Latino Voice named him one of the 25 most influential GLBT Latinos in the country. Respected by members of the literary community for his versatility with literary genres and for his advocacy of emerging writers, González has championed a number of efforts to give visibility to marginalized voices. He curates and hosts The Quetzal Quill, a reading series in Manhattan, and has featured a number of poets on The Poetry Foundation blog Harriet,http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/author/rgonzalez/ and on the National Book Critics Circle blog Critical Mass through the Small Press Spotlight Series.http://bookcritics.org/blog/category/small_press_spotlight/ To date, he has written 109 entries for Harriet and "spotlighted" 54 authors on Critical Mass. Writing Gonzalez self-identifies in his writing as a gay Chicano. Publications Poetry *''Skins Preserve Us: Poems''. Davis, CA: Abbey Road Press, 1999. * So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999. * Other Fugitives and Other Strangers. Dorset, VT: Tupelo Press, 2006. *''The Soldier of Mictlán'' (illustrated by Roni Gross). New York: Center for Book Arts, 2007. * Black Blossoms. New York: Four Way Books, 2011. * Unpeopled Eden. New York: Four Way Books, 2013. *''Our Lady of the Crossword''. New York: A Midsummer Night's Press, 2015. Novels * Crossing Vines: A novel. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003. Short fiction * Men without Bliss. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. Non-fiction * Butterfly Boy: Memories of a chicano mariposa. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. * Autobiography of My Hungers. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. * Red-Inked Retablos: Essays. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2013. Juvenile * Soledad Sigh-Sighs = Soledad Suspiros (illustrated by Rosa Ibarra). San Francisco: Children’s Book Press, 2003. * Antonio’s Card = La Tarjeta de Antonio (illustrated by Cecilia Concepción Alvarez). San Francisco: Children’s Book Press, 2005. *''The Mariposa Club''. New York : Alyson Books, 2009. *''Mariposa Gown''. Maple Shade, NJ : Lethe Press, 2012. *''Mariposa U.'' Maple Shade, NJ : Tincture, 2015. Edited * Camino del Sol: Fifteen years of Latina and Latino writing. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2010. *Alurista, Xicano Duende: A select anthology. Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press, 2011. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Rigoberto Gonzalez, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 29, 2015. See also *List of Chicano poets *List of U.S. poets *List of literary critics References * Library of Congress Online Catalog > Rigoberto González Notes External links ;Poems *Rigoberto Gonzalez profile & 2 poems at the Academy of American Poets *Rigoberto Gonzalez 2 poems at superstition review *Picture Me Awake: Poems (2 poems) * Rigoberto Gonzalez at the Poetry Foundation ;Audio / video *Rigoberto Gonzalez at YouTube * Interview with González on Words on a Wire ;Books *Rigoberto Gonzalez at Amazon.com * ;About * Rigoberto Gonzalez Official website. Category:1970 births Category:American poets Category:American writers of Mexican descent Category:American poets of Mexican descent Category:LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Living people Category:University of California, Riverside alumni Category:21st-century poets Category:Chicano poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets